Michael N. Marcus discusses writing, editing, design, publishing, language, culture, politics, food and other things.This blog started in 2008, was on hiatus for the summer and fall of 2017, and restarted in December.

We publish on Monday,
Wednesday and Friday in most weeks.

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Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Publishing terminology, Part One

Advance: a measly few bucks paid to an author by a publisher when a contract is agreed on. It's probably not enough to buy Happy Meals for your kids at Mickey Dee's.

Agent: A bloodsucker who takes a 'piece of the action' if she is able to convince a publisher to give a contract to an author.

Back-of-the-room sales: Book sales made at a table, usually in the back of or just outside an auditorium, at an event such as a conference where the author is speaking. You can get rich selling this way because you steal the sales tax and don't report the income.Bookland: A country created to reserve an EAN (originally European Article Number) Country Code for books, regardless of their country of origin. Bookland is located between Lower Slobovia and Grand Fenwick, and is north of Chelm and south of Oz. The country codes for Bookland are 978 and 979.

Bricks-and-mortar retailer: A physical store, as opposed to an online business (even if it's made of metal studs and Sheetrock, not bricks and mortar). These stores are quaint, amusing relics from the 18th century where you can often buy expensive coffee and use the rest room. Nobody buys books from them.Chick lit: A dirty book aimed at womenConsignment: A business method common in book publishing that allows booksellers to return unsold books to the publishers. It adds to the cost of books and lowers your profit.​

﻿Copyright: Government-backed protection of creative work. The feds can’t protect anything, so it’s a waste of money.Co-venture: A business entity where expenses and responsibilities are shared by more than one person or business and one gets screwedCrowdfunding (crowdfinancing): A method of raising money for a project, such as book publishing, by pathetically begging lots of people for small donations. It’s often done through social media such as blogs and Facebook.Discount: A percentage taken off the retail price of a book that is retained by a distributor, wholesaler, and retailer. Try not to give a discount. Booksellers should be glad to have the privilege of being associated with you. They don't need to make money on your books.E-tailer: An online retailer like Amazon.com -- the future of book sales​

﻿Genre: General Reinsurance CorporationGhostwriter: A writer, paid by a publisher or another writer, to write or co-write a book for someone who is too stupid, lazy or busy to write a book. Frequently used by politicians and celebrities.Hand selling: A personal book recommendation in a store -- a good way to get an infectious disease.ISBN: International Standard Book Number, a unique, 13-digit number that identifies a version of a book. You can save money by copying the ISBN from another book.ISPITA: Industrial Strength Pain in the Ass (much worse than a mere PITA), common in publishingKeyword: A secret word you use to get the key to your locker at the gym

Permission: Agreement from a copyright holder to permit another person or entity to use copyrighted material. Not necessary

PITA: Pain In the Ass (not limited to publishing)Publication date: The official date on which a book is allowed to be sold. It is often fictional and arbitrary because many books are sold before their “pub date.”Remainders: Books that are discounted to low prices, often one dollar, because they are outdated, damaged, selling poorly or excess inventory. Authors whose books are remaindered can buy them for a dollar and then resell them on eBay or Amazon for their original price and make a lot of money.Returns: Books sent back from a bookstore to a publisher for a refund because they did not sell. DO NOT allow returns. It's not your fault that a store failed to sell your books.Royalty: Payment to an author after books are sold, usually a percentage of sales in the 8 to 15% range. Authors who publish their own books can make MUCH more money, even 20,000-50,000% per book.Rule: A silly custom a modern author can ignoreSelf-publishing: A writer’s becoming the publisher of her or his own books to quickly become rich and famous like Mark TwainShort discount: A smaller-than-usual discount from the cover price of a book. A standard discount is usually 45-50%. If you want to get rich, allow as small a discount as possible. Booksellers need you much more than you need them, and will gladly accept a discount in the 2-5% range.Signature: Your name written in the front of the book so you can sell a book for $20 - $100 more than a book without a signature. You can actually have the signature printed in the book to save you time and avoid muscle ache. No one will know.Trade paperback: What you can do with a book you no longer wantWholesaler: A “middleman” company that buys books from a publisher and sells them to a retailer, raising the price of a book and stealing money from the author.

Books for authors at Amazon.com. Click on cover image.

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I use eBookit.com for much of my ebook formatting and distribution. The company has knowledgeable and responsive human beings who speak American English, they do great work, they do it fast at a reasonable price, and my money comes in every month. I could not be happier, and I am pleased to recommend the company.

Internet Hell

Do As I Say, Not As I Did. What I learned about life, too late. Click on image to order.

Funny and useful. Paperback and ebooks.

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Michael, redecorated on 4/15/11. Recently he has regrown his full beard and a few hairs on his head.

Who? What?

This blog is written and edited byMichael N. Marcus. He's a first-year baby boomer, a journalist, author, publisher, editor, blogger, advertising copywriter, critic, cynic, maven, gourmand, techie and amateur attorney.Michael's also president ofAbleComm,"the telecom department store." If you have a strange compulsion to know more about him, please CLICK.

I've been writing professionally for more than 40 years. My first book was published by Doubleday in 1976. Since 2008, I've owned a small publishing company, Silver Sands Books. Some recent and future books are shown above and below. Info is at the Silver Sands site. Printed and ebooks are available from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and other online and terrestrial booksellers. PDF ebooks are available at Lulu.com and elsewhere. Some cover designs shown may not be the final versions.

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Stories I'd Tell My Children (but maybe not until they're adults).Hilarious, poignant, bawdy. To meet readers' requests, now available as a hardcover, paperback, and e-book in formats for all e-readers, PC, Mac, smartphones. Just $4.99 (or less). Click on pic to order.

About my typing errors

I frequently criticize errors in books, and some readers have complained about my own lack of perfection. Even though I often go over my blog posts 10, 20, 30 or more times, they are not immune to errors. There is no excuse, but there are several reasons. (1) I'm getting old. (2) The spell checker in Blogger is terrible. (3) I have neither the time nor the budget to hire an editor for a daily blog, which I normally start writing at about 3:30 a.m. (4) Books and commercial websites (especially publishers' and authors' websites) should be held to a higher standard than daily blogs. (5) I'm getting old. Oh. Did I say that before?

To be published in 2016 (maybe): If You Want to be Happy as a clam, Eat Some Clams!